We’ve been quiet the last few weeks as a couple of the weekends we’ve had family engagements. I’ve also been pretty busy at work so this weekend came around a lot faster than I expected and didn’t think about what the plan was at all.
Combining my lack of organisation and a dim looking day across the UK I chose a route in the Peak District that was simple and a place I’d frequented a couple of times, the Great Ridge.
Both me and Rosko landed into Castleton at 10am and I got Rosko into his new winter suit. I’d noticed over the last few trips out, Roskos hands get really cold and sometimes his coat rides up at the back. Now he’s in his new attire I’m much happier that he’ll be warm throughout these winter months.
We walked through the lanes & across the public footpaths which was a lovely half hour! The trees were all golden and leaves crunch beneath my footsteps. The rain was also staying at bay which was brilliant! I was into my stride and, before long, we was at the base of Loose Hill.
As we popped out of the trees by the side of the final farm I could see a few walkers coming down the steep grassy slope, one lady unfortunately fell! A lot of her mates were in fits of laughter once they realised she was fine. This was a sure sign for me to circumvent this path.
The going became STEEP! a good 30 mins of hard work was before me. I thought that I’d been a bit more active recently but this hill seemed to kick my arse! But final,y we got to the top! Slightly underwhelming as the trip point was surrounded in cloud. However, I knew that the views would become clearer as we dropped down the great ridge on our journey to the other summits.
As we walked across the busy ridge I was really surprised. I’d never been here during autumn before. The colours of the dotted tree areas across the valley made the view even more picturesque than I remember and the view over to kinder scout on the opposite side was also as majestic. Rosko was asleep at this point so I knuckled down and blasted a serious amount of steps out.
I got to the summit of back tor but didn’t hang about. I then surpassed Hollins cross and was at the start of the climb up to Mam Tor, at this point Rosko started to wake up, I’d usually stop for some lunch at this point but because of the direction the wind was prevailing from so I decided to bat on to the top. I really put the hammer down here and made it up to to the summit in quick succession. All in all I managed to complete the 3 summits in under 2hrs which is good going considering both the baby weight and personal weight I’m carrying!
We bagged the summit then settled down for some lunch and Rosko had a stretch of his legs and a little read of his book….. bless him!
Once we packed up our blanket I had a slow stroll off the ridge and back to Castletown. All in all another fun and safe day out with the youngster…… on to next week!
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